Sunday, September 07, 2008

A New Series of Papers on Teacher Compensation from the University of Wisconsin CPRE GroupThere is strong consensus around the country that talented and capable teachers will be needed in all classrooms in order to accomplish the nation’s goals of teaching all students to high standards, and closing the achievement gap. Although there are many policy and practice issues that have to be addressed in order for the nation’s education systems to recruit and retain the quality of individuals that are required, including schools and classrooms in many of the country’s large urban and poverty impacted districts, the teacher compensation system itself must be changed. Teacher salary levels will have to be hiked in many places to enable school systems to compete for the quality of talent required to be successful, and the salary structures themselves need to be changed in order to pay teachers for the knowledge, skills and responsibilities to be successful and satisfied, including bonuses for improved student performance.With support from the College Board, the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is producing a series of papers:1. How New Teacher Pay Structures Can Support Education Reform by Allan Odden, 2. Do Teacher Pay Levels Matter? by Anthony Milanowski, 3. How to Design New Teacher Salary Structures by Herbert G. Heneman, III and Steve Kimball, 4. How to Pay Teachers for Student Performance Outcomes by Anthony Milanowski, 5. How to Pay for Teacher Compensation Changes by Allan Odden, and 6. Exploring a Federal Government Role in Funding Increased Teacher Compensation by Andrew